章 143: Rejection Slap
"Sorry, what did you just call me?" Sonic asked, not letting go. Sage's eyes snapped open. She felt a sting in her chest. A strange feeling she had never felt before in any of her simulations. Could it be…
… Weakness?
Sage clutched her ribs with both hands. "Father. I called you father," she said, averting her eyes from side to side with a deadpan expression. "Got a problem with that?"
"No, not at all! You do you," Sonic said. A longer sting. "It's… just surprising. But I live for surprises! " He gave Sage another one of his signature smiles. The kind that shined onto her like blinding sunlight filtering into a dark room. "I just need some time to figure it out. I can't be old enough to be a father, right?"
"Negative! Most males your age, even excluding your time spent in Cyberspace, have already had children!" Sage retorted.
"But I always saw you more like a sister." Sonic took a seat on a rock, watching the new sunrise.
"A-always? Why?" Sage asked, bewildered. "These feelings are new to me. I refuse to believe that all this time, you have thought of me as more than just your superior." Sage breathed out. "How I would love to see the world through your eyes." Sonic glanced to her, already beginning to fall back asleep despite knowing he needed to look for food that day. He then smiled, grabbed her hand, and fell to the side. Taking her down with him. "S-Sonic?! What are—?!"
They flipped out into another plane of reality. A sickly sweet scent permeated the stagnant air as they meteored down to a familiar brick road. Glazed in a digital overlay of vibrant chalk. Surrounded by cherries with fresh skin and rotten cores. Cherry Chalkwalk Zone.
"What are we doing here?!" Sage cried, as Sonic landed into a dash. He chased a blinding light at the end of the infinite path.
"I've been practicing something new," Sonic replied, locking onto the light and shooting through the air after it. "I think you'll like it."
"Something new? In Cyberspace?" Sage asked. "How can that be when this place feeds off memories?"
"Cyberspace began to break after I escaped the first Titan. I started to pick up on… quirks, let's call them. The visions… they didn't line up with how I remember this stuff deep down. I figured that if my speed sent the system into panic mode that time, maybe I could push it even further," Sonic recounted, Cyberspace beginning to warp all around them, colorful lights zooming right by.
"I see… the faster you run, the more Cyberspace struggles to keep up with your brain activity, manifesting brand new scenarios," Sage gasped.
"I just gotta make sure I don't get so excited that I wake myself up," Sonic laughed. He reached for the light, and squeezed it tightly. It broke in his hand, and Cyberspace cut away to a small, black void. Leaving only Sonic and Sage.
"What is this place?" Sage asked. A couch appeared right under Sonic, he reclined on it. "Is it still Cyberspace?"
"Aah… kinda! But better," Sonic sighed, eating a chili dog out of thin air. "Instead of a bunch of botched reruns, this world reacts to my imagination. I can get basically anything I want."
"Anything you want…" Sage mumbled, looking all around in fascination as different windows opened up all around her. Showing her futures that were never meant to be, and memories long lost to time. Her jaw dropped into a smile, simply watching these wonderful adventures as Sonic sat behind her, dreaming them up. "It's beautiful. Is this what our lives will be like after we get out of this place? It's somewhat different from my simulations." Sonic didn't respond, he only snored. Sage giggled, looking back to the windows as their tender light shined onto her. Until she realized something. She wasn't in any of them.
"Wait… what?" Sage asked, looking all around at Sonic's ideal futures. She saw all these great companions from Sonic's past. But not herself. A wretched feeling welled up in her heart. She floated up to a certain window, displaying a future house. An idyllic home by the beach tailored towards making her father happy. Sonic sat inside the living room, cradling a blurry-faced daughter in his arms. But her purple hair wasn't Sage's color. Sage wouldn't wear those clothes. Sage could never grow tall like her. That wasn't Sage. Sage reached out to that future, tried to touch it. But when her hand landed on the window, it shattered. Sonic tossed and turned, bothered by the dream breaking into pieces.
And that's when it became clear that Sonic's perfect future didn't involve Sage. She was not in it. "Father?" Sage whimpered, floating down to the couch that Sonic sat alone on. She tried sitting next to him, but then his eye snapped open, looking right at her. Cyberspace faded away into a purple void, then left them back in the desert.
But something was different. The ruins were gone. Instead replaced by… Striders. Hundreds of them, littering the badlands. Sonic looked up. Grind rails lined the skies, barely letting the stars shine through. Large, watery creatures ran down the road, slipping right through Sonic and Sage. "Are those… the Fallen Stars?" Sonic whispered to Sage. "What's going on?"
"Don't worry about whispering. They cannot hear you anyways," Sage sighed. Sonic could swear he had felt their watery forms splashing against him in the stampede. He looked through the cracks between the rails. He could hardly see the moon…
"Wait, IS that the moon?" Sonic asked. A flash of light came from the strange satellite above. Sonic could hear the screams of the Fallen Stars. He could hear the crumbling of their colony. He could hear it all as everything faded back to a solemn, cold silence. The landscape returned to its usual state of desolation. Sonic felt that sensation again. The feeling of failure and guilt.
"Don't you see now?" Sonic glanced to Sage. "If we can channel that power out of Cyberspace, we would trounce Wyvern and any opposition that you may face in the future," Sage said, looking to the real moon in the sky. Sonic felt a chill go up his spine. "You could go home. You could be happy. All of those dreams, and your memories, you'd have them back."
"It's… worth a shot. I'm not teaming up with the Sumos, though. I have a feeling we can get this weapon without them," Sonic groaned, cracking his back. "Hey… Sage?"
"Father?" Sage asked attentively. Sonic smiled.
"Nothing… Just wanted to hear you call me that again," Sonic chuckled, happily. "I could get used to it." With a smile, Sage looked into his eyes. At the caring, loving spark that she knew couldn't possibly last forever.
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